HR: 0830h
AN: C41B-0963    [PDF]
TI: Spatiotemporal Snowpack Distribution Across a Topographically and Ecologically Complex Landscape, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
AU: * Selkowitz, D
EM: dselkowitz@usgs.gov
AF: Department of Geosciences, 104 Wilkinson Hall Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AU: Fagre, D
EM: dan_fagre@usgs.gov
AF: USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center Glacier Field Station, Science Center Glacier National Park, West Glacier, MT 59936
AB: Spatial and temporal variability in snowpack distribution at the watershed scale is the primary driver of many physical and ecological processes in mountain environments such as Glacier National Park. The USGS Global Change Research Program in Glacier National Park has been collecting snow data at 130 points along six survey routes in two 400 km2 watersheds since water year 1995. These data represent below-treeline snow conditions from two distinct climate regimes separated by the Continental Divide, as well as a broad range of elevations, aspects and land cover characteristics. Consistent relationships between snow water equivalent (SWE) at survey points and same-day SWE observations recorded at nearby SNOTEL automated snowpack reporting stations were used to produce modeled estimates of daily SWE at each survey point for water years 1995-2003. Analysis of both observed and estimated SWE values show that SWE variability across the landscape increases steadily over the course of the water year and peaks sometime between March and May, depending on the year. Observed and estimated SWE values also indicate that elevation is the dominant factor controlling the distribution of SWE across this topographically complex landscape, overshadowing other known factors such as variations in land cover and solar radiation. Elevation explains an average of 60 percent of the total variability in observed SWE (for all observations), increasing steadily from 45.5 percent in December to 64.4 percent in June. Modeled daily relationships between elevation and SWE will serve as a solid base for empirical models of distributed SWE in Glacier, though further exploration of the relationship between SWE and land cover, solar radiation, and other factors will improve the accuracy of these models.
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting